Artisania

May your days be jolly and bright, and my all your Chrismahanzaquanzika’s be white!

Miraculously…miraculusley…mirac… *sigh*,

Amazingly, Mom and her hubby dug their way out and will be joining us for Christmas Eve dinner YAY!!

I realized that I still had a lap quilt hiding in my kitchen cupboard which was nearly done. I started it last year for my Auntie Kyung Ja but somehow I never got around to finishing it. I pulled it out after I finished the baby quilt and saw that it only needed a label and the ends tied off! Well that’s just silly to keep putting it off!

It’s made from some short pieces of absolutely gorgeous decorator weight fabrics in a very simple patchwork. I backed it in fleece and kept it a small lap quilt size as my aunt is in hospice, so it needs to fit within the width of her bed. Which it did I’m so pleased to say!

This is my favorite of the fabrics,

And the label, which I had to handsew as the binding was already sewn down.

I delivered it on Saturday and she loved it so much that she cried! Awww! I tell you, THAT felt good! She used to crochet the most beautiful and charming quilts for everyone in the family, so I just had to return the favor! Boy I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally get these long lingering projects completed!

Let the woman, receive her quilt!

Comes complete with 5 starfish stuffies, courtesty of my loving hubby.

The label:

The full shot:

The quilting on the striped side:

Here’s a high contrast shot to try to show the overall quilting detail:

The top right corner showing the smiling sun, the sun rays, a flock a seagulls, a biplane, and a fish leaping out of the water:

A close up of the plane:

Top left side showing the clouds, helicopter, island with the lighthouse and a small whale:

The bottom right showing the peek-a-boo crab, angelfish, shell and seaweed:

A seahorse and little turtle:

And the best shot I could muster showing Jacques the shrimp from Finding Nemo:

And finally the minkee backing with the label:

Ooh, I LOVE this quilt, and I really hope they all enjoy it! Truly a labour of love. It was given to my hubby’s boss this morning, and suffice to say he was honestly touched and delivered a hearty handshake and a beaming smile! What more could I ask for?

And thus my christmas sewing is done!

Next up, the educational video I’m directing for my mom in January! Oh! and then the wedding dress! and then??

And ready to quilt!

I have a hate hate relationship with puckers.

Hallelujah! The top to the baby quilt is done! DONE I TELL YOU!!

Oh boy have I been a stitching maniac for the past week! That baby – Hubby’s boss’ wife’s baby -  was born at the end of August and this quilt has been in the works since May. MAY!! I can not tell you how happy I am that this thing is almost finished.

What was supposed to be a 2 week project ended up to be a 7 month lesson in sheer torture. I clearly severely overestimated my embroidery ability. Good lord, I’m so dang slow! Each of these creatures took a good 2+ hours to complete.  This is not good for someone with the attention span of a gnat.

While we’re on the topic of wierd, icky creatures, let me introduce you to my first big ole lesson in scale and accuracy of stitching:

Cute eh? He’s one of the adorable little boys in Gyo Fujikawa’s book “Oh What a Busy Day”, a treasured favorite in my family. And by the grace of all that is holy, he actually looks like a happy little boy with a bowl cut fishing in his boat!!

Lemme tell ya, what I had at first was a  fat, possessed demon ewok offspring,  crouching in the boat waiting to devour his next innocent prey.  It took me about 30 minutes to get past my utter disbelief and horror and realize where I had gone wrong. I so nearly threw the whole project in the garbage! By the time my hubby came to check on me (he had spent the previous 30 minutes getting the children to sleep) I was laughing quite hysterically muttering “Look out, the demon ewok’s gonna get your baby!” over and over. But I digress.

See the cute litte puppy I designed all by myself? Not bad for someone who can’t draw eh?

And the flags!! I’m so proud of this detail. This is the baby’s name spelled out in proper sailing signal flags! Now I do realize this is not the proper place for signal flags on a sailboat, but they just needed to be flying in the wind at the top of the mast.

Ah yes, the worm at the end of the fishing line:

The dolphin who’s come for story time:

And the blue and yellow fish who’s had an eye-ectomy and replacement. Here’s hoping the evidence will vanish in the wash I’m psyching myself up to do.

I’m going to bed now, and plan out the crazy details of the quilting on my plate for tomorrow!

Vince and I went on our annual date to his work Christmas party on Saturday. Yes, we never go out sans children so this was a big deal!

It was held at a restaurant called Nu. A pretty swank and cosy spot on the waterfront with the most amazing wrap around view of False Creek! I don’t know how many people squeezed themselves in, I just know it was a pretty intimate party! Very comfy, twirl around chairs and we were kept entertained by the many decorated yachts coming in and out of the dock. Very yummy food too. I had an organic spinach salad with some kind of toasted, sweetened nuts and fresh crumbled feta to start. The incredibly juicy, marinated flank steak with roasted veggies, and the generously portioned crème brûleé for dessert. Divine!

Here I am with Maya (who insisted on taking a picture with Mommy), and with my handsome hubby..

This is a quick little post to let you know that I’ve been fixing broken links I’ve found in some the earlier posts, and cleaning up the Free Patterns links on the right. Obviously I’m still learning how to master this blogging thing!

Oh, and a note on the Gnomeling, Fancy Mushroom and Gnomlette free patterns:

The orginal versions of these patterns I first posted have recently been cleaned up and put into scale with one another. Now when you make the sisters, Gnomlette stands a bit taller than her baby sister Gnomeling.  This also means that Gnomlette’s pattern has been tweaked so that you no longer have to muck around with adding the extra length to the pattern pieces.

Also, the piecing order of Gnomeling has been tweaked to make customizing the ground a lot easier to do, and the ground and sky pieces have been added to the Fancy Mushroom to make sewing it to Gnomeling easy as pie!

So, if you downloaded these patterns several months ago, it’s worth clicking on the Free Pattern links again!

Oh be still my heart…

This little beauty was crafted by Amy of Mrs. Schmenkman quilts. LOOK AT HER BOOTS!! *swoon* She has such a quirky little attitude, and I can just see her stomping in all the puddles from that super fancy rain Amy quilted.

Well done woman, well done!

You can find the Gnomlette pattern here!